Using this page

This page allows the reader to compare matching sections of Meleches Hamishkan in the Torah. Very frequently, they are almost the same both in wording and in trope. There are also numerous subtle differences.

This tool makes it easy to compare. If you hover over a verse, it highlights a section from the Torah that contains that verse. It also brings a matching section (if there is one) into the opposite column. Furthermore, if there is a phrase or verse that matches the original, it highlights that as well.

If you then move to a different phrase, or hit TAB or DOWN to move to the next phrase, the same will happen with that new phrase: it will illuminate that phrase and the new matching phrase in the opposite column.

If you actually click on a phrase, it will move that section up close to the top of its column. This may sometimes be helpful bringing the whole section into view.

There are three sets of colors: yellow (and yellow-orange on hovering) are phrases that do have a counterpart in the other column's section. Green are phrases that have no counterpart that I saw. Violet are phrases that do have a counterpart phrase - but it is somewhere else, not in what I considered to be the main matching section.

The sedra and aliyah of the chosen sections appear to the right of each column. Keep an eye on them, the column can jump a long way without your noticing. Also, the chapter and verse for the beginning of the visible verses in each column appears at the top, and for the end of the visible verses appears below.

If I have additional comments (still in development) they will appear at the bottom of the page.

The importance of Meleches Hamishkan

The section of the Torah that concerns Meleches Hamishkan is unique in many ways. While many things in the Torah are described only in hints, Meleches Hamishkan is spelled out in tremendous detail. It frequently says things several times: for instance, Hasham commands that a certain part of the Mishkan be made, then Moshe tells Israel to do it, then they build it, then they bring it to Moshe, then Hashem says to put it up, then they do it. This story is incredibly precious to Hashem; so to say, he likes telling it in a lot of detail.

The narrative actually is the central pivot of the Torah. It begins in Sefer Shmos, which ends when the Shechina comes down in the Mishkan. There is not much narrative in Sefer Vayikra, but a good part of it is the Miluim and Yom Shemini, in Parshios Tzav and Shemini. And the rest of Sefer Vayikra is Toras Cohanim: it teaches Israel how to behave with the Shechina in their midst. Then Sefer Bamidbar continues the same story, also beginning on "Yom Shemini" (the first of Nisan), and going right on with the korbonos of the Nesi'im - until Israel is ready to move again toward Eretz Yisroel.

The story of the Mishkan is the thread that links together the end of Shmos, all of Vayikra, and the beginning of Bamidbar. So aside from the preamble to history in Sefer B'reishis, and Moshe's retrospective in Sefer D'varim, the story of the Mishkan binds the Torah together.